--- title: Bartitsu: The Lost Martial Art of Sherlock Holmes | TIME description: After being lost for nearly 100 years, the victorian martial art of Bartitsu is experiencing a renaissance, due in part to the comeback of its most famous practitioner, Sherlock Holmes. canonical: https://time.com/video/SnAAMbeJ/ og:title: Bartitsu: The Lost Martial Art of Sherlock Holmes og:description: After being lost for nearly 100 years, the victorian martial art of Bartitsu is experiencing a renaissance, due in part to the comeback of its most famous practitioner, Sherlock Holmes. og:url: https://time.com/video/SnAAMbeJ/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/SnAAMbeJ/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bartitsu: The Lost Martial Art of Sherlock Holmes twitter:description: After being lost for nearly 100 years, the victorian martial art of Bartitsu is experiencing a renaissance, due in part to the comeback of its most famous practitioner, Sherlock Holmes. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/SnAAMbeJ/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Bartitsu: The Lost Martial Art of Sherlock Holmes > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Bartitsu: The Lost Martial Art of Sherlock Holmes [Watch (HLS stream): Bartitsu: The Lost Martial Art of Sherlock Holmes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/SnAAMbeJ.m3u8) (3:45)  _Published 2013-04-30. After being lost for nearly 100 years, the victorian martial art of Bartitsu is experiencing a renaissance, due in part to the comeback of its most famous practitioner, Sherlock Holmes._ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:33 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Sherlock trailer](/video/vWc831eR/) ### Sherlock trailer [Watch Mixed Martial Arts Fighters Compete in China](/video/dpt09KrP/) ### Watch Mixed Martial Arts Fighters Compete in China [150 Years of Sherlock Holmes](/video/vEFURlZN/) ### 150 Years of Sherlock Holmes --- ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Bartitsu is possibly the first mixed martial arts that ever existed. It was opened in a school in London in the late 1800's by a fellow named Edward William Barton- Wright. That's where the name comes from. Barton- Wright, Bartitsu. He was born in India and when he came back to England in the late 1800's there was a karate epidemic and the streets really weren't safe. And you felt it a good business decision to open a school for self defense. Edward, really important Wright had brought two instructors from Japan, to teach Jujitsu to the [ INAUDIBLE ]. He also had a Swiss walking stick self defense instructor [ INAUDIBLE ]. He, himself, taught English boxing. Just good old fashioned pugilism. And savate, which was a French form of kicking pioneered by the dock workers of Marsaille. The advantage of doing this is that I can come and back and use the rhythm to pull myself up. [ INAUDIBLE ] in Manhattan. And we approach as an historical workshop and therefore we don't have as much of an aspect on competion or becoming the best. Those are things that just happen through the study. But you gotta turn [ INAUDIBLE ] [ MUSIC ]. So bartitsu laid dormant and forgotten for almost a century. It was rediscovered almost by accident in one of the Sherlock Holmes stories called the empty house, Conan Doyle says that Sherlock Holmes is not a German baritsu which is a misspelling of bartitsu. In 2009, Sherlock Holmes hit [ MUSIC ] The big screen with the Guy Ritchie movie. After decades of being more or less forgotten, he actually was revived and became exactly as he was to the Victorians, sort of an action adventure hero, somebody with a shrewd mind and the physical skills to fight injustice. And just as he himself has been revived from the pages of nineteenth century magazines, Bartitsu has also been revived as the fighting art of Sherlock Holmes. In the first movie, there are two moments when he breaks down in his mind what he is going to do. First, distract target. Then block his blind jab. Counter with cross to left cheek. And these are very Bartitsu aspects of examining how to disrupt somebody progressively. Strike after strike after strike. One of the things they taught how to use back then was a cane, because every gentlemen had a cane and every lady had a umbrella. Nowadays people don't walk around with a cane, so it is not very practical to teach to people. But besides that small element, partitsu is pretty viable as a modern method of self defense, because it teaches you too. Awareness. And it teaches you. Some fundamentals of. Fighting and self defense. That will never change. Because of the way human beings are built. Doesn't matter if the other guy is bigger. Or stronger. Or more aggressive. If you are smarter. And have a cool head on your shoulders. And have a little background in training. [ MUSIC ] Then you can easily foil an opponent, even one whose twice your size. 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